Category Archives: Cloistered life

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

The Passionist Spirit

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Sr. Mary Andrea, CP
Sr. Mary Andrea, CP

Tomorrow the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists. In a special way today, we offer up our prayers for Sr. Mary Andrea of the Incarnate Word who is making her Perpetual Consecration today to Jesus Crucified.

Sr. Mary Andrea is a Passionist nun in the community in Whitesville, Kentucky. These words of St. Paul of the Cross were recalled at her First Profession:

Proclaim the message of the Cross in the Sacred Wounds of our most lovable Redeemer opened more by His infinite love than by the hard nails, so that we may drink the saving waters of grace in these springs of eternal life.

We also want to thank God for her superior, Mother Catherine Marie, CP, who celebrated her Golden Jubilee as a Passionist nun on August 24, 2013. Here is what one of her sisters said to honor Mother on her special day:

Mother Catherine Marie, CP, and her mother!
Mother Catherine Marie, CP, and her mother!

What IS this Passionist spirit? What is it that drives you and your community, Reverend Mother and all those who accompany you in this pilgrimage to and around the Cross of our Lord and our Sorrowful Mother? It is to be one with Jesus in that moment of His death and resurrection. You often quote to us that expression of Father F. X. Durwell who said: “Jesus Christ is fixated forever at that moment of His death and resurrection.” Passionists focus on the suffering and death of Jesus, all of which leads to the glorious resurrection of our Lord.

Cloistered life

Fixed to the Cross of Christ

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canonessesOn July 20, 2013, the Norbertine Canonesses’ new priory, the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph, in Tehachapi, California, was blessed in a ceremony presided over by Abbot Eugene Hayes, O.Praem., Abbot of St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California. The Catholic World Report has a fine article on Norbertines in general and the sisters new priory in particular.

The monastery is needed for three reasons: to handle the influx of vocations, to give the sisters a permanent place to live and to allow them to be self-sufficient. The acreage, kitchen and work areas will allow them to work the land, raise animals, produce their artisan cheeses, sew priestly vestments, create their Christmas wreaths, etc. There were five founding sisters originally with the number of Norbertine nuns now up to 26. The monastery will be able to house 48 sisters.

A local TV station did a wonderful feature story on the sisters and their new home, giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their life. Interviews with the sisters, a tour, a picture of their cloistered life and thoughts from Mother Mary Augustine are all included. Well worth a look.

One of the precious items in the new chapter room is a crucifix that was spotted in 1967 in a dumpster behind a church by a man who rescued and restored it himself. Not an easy task as two arms were missing and a new cross was needed. After the man’s death in 1987, the crucifix found its way to an antique shop where a friend of the monastery purchased it for the sisters. I hope this man is able to look down from heaven and see how treasured is his gift of love.

He wants to be wholly fixed in your hearts
Who for your sake let Himself be fixed
to the Cross.
St. Augustine

 

Cloistered life, Men's communities

Today I Begin

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Br Joseph-Solemn Vows 339One of the rarest vocations in the United States seems to be the call to be a hermit.  In fact, there seem to be only two Carmelite men’s communities of true hermits in the United States. Therefore, it is with rejoicing that one hears about the profession of a man or woman to this most ancient of vocations.

The Carmelite hermits trace their lineage back to the 13th century when a group of hermits living on Mount Carmel in Palestine came together under a formula vitae which developed into the Carmelite Rule. Because of the Prophet Elijah’s association with Mount Carmel, the hermits adopted him as their spiritual father. A colony of hermits is called a Laura in which each hermit has an individual hermitage.

Paul Wathen was living in Colorado when he became interested in the writings of St. Teresa of Avila and felt drawn to the contemplative life. As a graduate in electronics and computer science from Indiana State University, Paul was living a good life. Then the 40 year-old made a trip to the Hermits of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Christoval, Texas, and received special graces that weekend. “God let me know this was where He wanted me to be. I found a lot of peace.”

Brother Joseph Mary MotherPaul, now Brother Mary Joseph of the Holy Rosary, says the life is not for everyone. But with God calling him, he could not say no. Telling his mother was easy. she was not only supportive, but overjoyed!

The story of the founding of the Christoval hermits is a miracle in itself. Fr. Fabian Rosetti located the isolated land that he wanted for a hermitage but the owner wouldn’t part with it for three reasons: Fr. Fabian was Catholic,  he was a priest, and he was Hispanic. But God’s plans with prayers and sacrifices could not be stopped. Father got his 200 acres with many Protestant workers assisting in the building of the hermitage. In fact, a good number of their regular visitors and friends are Protestant!

See the complete story in the Southern Indiana Catholic newspaper.

“Every day I must say to myself: Today I begin –  St. Anthony of the Desert

 

bear witness to the passing nature of the present age by the inward and outward separation, from the world. By fasting and Penance, they show that man does not live by bread alone but by the work of God. Such a life “In the Desert” is an invitation to their contemporaries and to

Cloistered life, News

A Seed and a Sign

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pcc pope francisOn August 11, 2013, the Poor Clares opened up a “Poor Clare” museum in Albano, Italy,  near Castel Gandolfo (the summer home of the Popes) and on August 15th they had a most illustrious guest: Pope Francis himself! The Holy Father spoke with the nuns and prayed at the tomb of Sr. Maria Chiara Damato whose cause for canonization is underway.

The Poor Clares of Albano suffered grievously during World War II.  As the Allies marched north in Italy, they took to heart Pope Pius XII’s plea and the entire community offered themselves “as victims for the longed-for peace in the world.”

On February 1, 1944, a bomb fell nearby, shattering the stained glass windows in their chapel. As they were recovering from the shock of this blow, a second bomb made a direct hit on the monastery and several sisters were killed. The surviving sisters moved into temporary quarters which they shared with other refugees. In fact, over 40 babies were born to refugee mothers in the Papal apartments during the war.

On February 10th, bombs hit their temporary home resulting in great loss of life. Sr. Maria Chiara was one of the injured: “I am happy to suffer with Jesus suffering on the Cross, but with a happiness full of inner joy.”  The suffering would not be wasted. Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini, later Pope Paul VI, predicted that it would rebound on the community with a flourishing of vocations. Indeed, with the end of the war in 1945, vocations came.

chiaraSr. Maria Chiara of St. Therese of the Child Jesus was inspired to enter cloistered life in part because of the example St. Therese of Lisieux. In emulation of her namesake, she too asked to be afflicted with tuberculosis and offered her sufferings and death for the sanctification of priests. After caring tirelessly for the refugees, she died in 1948. She was only in her thirties.

When the now-Pope Paul VI visited the community in 1971, he paused in front of a stone slab that listed the names of the 18 sisters who died during the bombings. His visit, he said, had a purpose. It was “intended as a response to the tacit objection which viewed cloistered nuns as marginalized from life, from reality and from the experience of our time.” He added, “You, who are faithful to the Rule, to life in community, to poverty, are a seed and a sign.”

For more information, see the Catholic News Service article.

 

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

Striving to Reach the Goal

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mother_mary_salvador_webOn May 13, 2013, Mother Mary Salvador of the Heart of Jesus, C.P., was laid to rest in the Passionist’s community cemetery in Ellisville, Missouri. Anyone who called the Passionists to request prayers or one of their handmade note cards was greeted with the sweet and gentle voice of this dear sister.

Mother was actually an active sister who 20 years after her entrance into religious life transferred, “to our great joy” as the nuns said, to the Passionists.

This link directs you to a short video of Mother Mary Salvador and her reflection on the Passionist vocation and the value of suffering. She reminds us that to reach the Resurrection, it is necessary to pass through Good Friday. No one questions the sweat, sacrifices, pain and labor that an athlete goes through to reach the finish line. We have a much greater goal in store for us – a heavenly union with God!

The Passionists’ motto is: May the Passion of Jesus Christ Be Always in Our Hearts. Like Jesus, who bore our sins on the Cross, the sisters take our sufferings and offer them on our behalf to Jesus, that it might bear fruit in our lives and give us the hope and grace to see beyond it. It is not a simply desire for endurance in suffering; it is the hope that we will experience a foretaste of the glory and joy that is to come.

Please pray that these sisters will receive many holy vocations. Our poor, suffering world needs their witness for without the remembrance of the Passion of Christ and what it won for us, the light of faith will grow dimmer in our world.

Cloistered life, Men's communities, News

Cistercian Centenary

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August 20th is the Feast Day of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and this year the Cistercians are celebrating an extra-special anniversary for 2013 is the 900th centenary of St. Bernard’s entrance into Citeaux, the Motherhouse of the Cistercians.  The date of his entry was either 1112 or 1113 so for the past year the Cistercians have been commemorating this anniversary with a daily prayer for vocations.

Citeaux

Cîteaux Abbey was founded in 1098 by Sts. Robert, Alberic and Stephen Harding, monks from the Benedictine Abbey of Molesme who were seeking to follow the Rule of St. Benedict more closely. St. Bruno also resided in the vicinity of Molesme around the same time (1082) but he left to become the founder of the Carthusians.

When St. Bernard arrived at Citeaux, which hadn’t had a vocation in some time, there were thirty men with him, including his uncle and four of his brothers! When he was only in his twenties, he established a new Cistercian abbey in the Valley of Light or Clairvaux. At the time of his death, 700 men resided at Clairvaux and 68 new abbeys had been founded by him. What a difference one Cistercian made in the life of the Church!

 

So let us join the Cistercians today and pray their prayer for vocations:

Most gracious Father,

in setting up the New Monastery our fathers followed the poor Christ into the desert.

Thus they lived the Gospel by rediscovering the Rule of Saint Benedict in its purity.

You gave Bernard of Fontaine the ability

to make this new life attractive and appealing to others,

in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

Grant that we today, after their example,

may live our charism deeply in a spirit of peace, unity, humility,

and above all, in the charity which surpasses all other gifts.

May men and women of our time be newly called to follow the Gospel in monastic life,

in the service of the Church’s mission, and in a world forgetful of You.

Remember Lord, Cîteaux, where Bernard arrived with his companions.

May the brothers there continue to live in the enthusiastic and generative spirit of the founders.

Remember all who live the Cistercian charism.

Remember all Cistercian communities, those which are aging and those newly-born,

in all parts of the world, north and south, east and west.

Let them not lose courage in times of trial,

but turn to her whom Bernard called the Star of the Sea.

 Holy Father, from whom we have already received so much,

grant us again your blessing that our communities may grow in numbers,

but above all in grace and in wisdom, to your glory,

who are blessed for ever and ever.

Amen.

Cloistered life, Papal Address

Entrustment to Mary

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On this feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major which Pope Francis visited on the eve of his departure for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, it seems appropriate to post the counsel he gave to seminarians, novices and those discerning a vocation in a gathering held on July 7, 2013:

I entrust you to the intercession of Mary Most Holy.

She is the Mother who helps us to take life decisions freely and without fear.

May she help you to bear witness to the joy of God’s consolation,

without being afraid of joy,

she will help you to conform yourselves to the logic of love of the Cross,

to grow in ever deeper union with the Lord in prayer.

Then your lives will be rich and fruitful! Amen.

With cloistered Nuns in Rio de Janeiro

Cloistered life, Men's communities

The Faith of Peter is Our Faith!

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A priest and friend of the IRL from the Maronite Monastery in Petersham, Massachusetts, recently sent us a picture of a beloved confrere who died (or as the ancient monastic saying has it was “perfected”) on June 3, 2013. He was by all accounts everyone’s favorite, a lovely and holy priest. The picture says it all. May he rest in peace.

As an Eastern Rite Church, the Maronites are a beautiful example for the Church to take inspiration from today. They are and always have been in full communion with the Catholic Church. Despite persecution, their belief in the teachings of the Church and in the authority of the Chair of St. Peter have never wavered. Over 350 Maronite monks were martyred in 517 A.D. for their defense of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon (451) which defined Jesus as “true God and true Man.”

The ancient roots of the Maronite Church are quite amazing. The early Maronites were descendents of the people who received the gift of Faith from Saint Peter himself. The Maronite Patriarch resides in Antioch which is where the early followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). According to Eusebius, St. Peter founded the Church at Antioch and became its first bishop. Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, is still the liturgical language of the Maronite Church.

The cloistered, contemplative Maronite Monks of the Most Holy Trinity in Petersham were founded in 1978 and are dedicated to a life of prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. “The particular goal of the Maronite Monks of Most Holy Trinity is to participate in the hidden and suffering life of Jesus Christ. The spirit of the community is especially to consist in this: that it is joined to Christ as a body appropriated by Him in His love and adoration of the Father and pouring out of Himself in love for His brothers.”

On the Feast of  St. Peter and St. Paul, the Maronites pray in the Divine Liturgy: “O Lord, preserve your children from all error or deviation, grant us to live and die proclaiming: ‘Our faith is the faith of Peter, the faith of Peter is our faith!’” May we today have the faith and courage of the early Maronites!

 

 

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

Daughters of Elijah

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Last week, I had the privilege of visiting the Hermits of St. Mary of Carmel in Houston, Minnesota, a diocesan institute of autonomous right following the Primitive Rule.  I was not planning to spend more than an hour but the conversation was so lively and the tour so interesting that the time flew by like the breeze. We found we had a lot in common, where we grew up, etc., so there was a lot of laughter.

The prioress was a Carmelite for the Aged and Infirm for 25 years. Another sister was originally a Poor Clare until she experienced the call within a call. The youngest sister was a Carmelite in Singapore who felt drawn to the hermit life which took her to Ireland and finally to Minnesota. One sister, in search of the hermit life, worked on Mount Carmel then went to Italy and finally to Minnesota. There is also a postulant and 3 others who will soon be coming to experience their unique life.

Most of the women who “come and see” what the life is like do not stay. Some feel called to live a solitary life as a canonical hermit (Canon 603). Others return to traditional community life. The blend of community life and eremitical life is difficult. St. Bruno said that some amount of community life is necessary to make the life livable. Nevertheless, it is a call for the few.

This is not a place to escape to or a place to escape from problems. If anything, if you come in carrying a lot of unresolved issues, they will be brought to the cold light of day.  Many people come but “few are chosen.”

The center/community building is on a hill overlooking a valley and the individual hermitages. The chapel is in the middle with a bay window overlooking the hermitages. The tabernacle is made of glass containing a large consecrated host in a small monstrance. The tabernacle is lit at night so that all the sisters can see it from their hermitages. It must be quite a sight to see the golden glow of the Lord in the dark of night.

They accept only alms for their support. If the Lord wants their life to continue, then He will provide.

Visitors are welcome but silence and quiet is the norm. You can write to them for more information at 33005 Stinson Ridge Road, Houston, MN 55943. They do not have a website or use email.

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

The Heartbeat of the Church

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Somehow, I don’t equate southern Florida with a cloistered, contemplative community but on that point, I am wrong in more ways than one! The Poor Clares of the Monastery of San Damiano of St. Clare in Fort Myers Beach recently celebrated their 25th anniversary in the Diocese of Venice. They, in turn, are a “daughter house” of the Poor Clares in Delray Beach, Florida, who came to the newly created Diocese of Miami in 1960.

Much like the papal line of succession, the Poor Clares can trace their lineage back to the first monastery that their founder, St. Francis of Assisi, began in Assisi, Italy, in 1212, with their foundress Saint Clare. St. Clare lived with her sisters for 42 years in the monastery of San Damiano in Assisi. Going forward 800 years, Delray Beach was founded by the Poor Clares in Bordentown, New Jersey, which was founded by Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, which was founded by Evansville, Indiana, which was founded by Omaha, Nebraska, which was founded by San Lorenzo Roma, in Italy, which was founded by Ss. Cosmas and Damian Rome, which was founded by San Damiano in 1233. And if this isn’t enough to make you dizzy, their are over 800 Poor Clare monasteries in all parts of the world!

The sisters’ life in Florida revolves around the traditional monastic blend of work and prayer. Their ministry is prayer— for the Church, for the diocese in which they reside and for all God’s people.

Bishop Frank J. Dewane expressed his feelings about the Poor Clares in a letter to the community: “San Damiano Monastery has remained true to the mission of its founding. This Monastery participates each and every day in the same charism which filled and motivated St. Francis and St. Clare… like your two venerable founders, you have left all and given yourselves entirely to living the Gospel life — for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of souls. Your life of prayer and community is the ‘heartbeat’ of our Church.”

Mary Almighty God bless you. May He look on you with the eyes of His mercy and give you peace. 

Here below may He pour forth his graces on you abundantly, and in heaven may He place you among His saints. 

Blessing of Saint Clare